News Story

EA stops charging online access fees for used games

Electronic Arts has ended its Online Pass program intended to curtail used games. The Online Pass gave each game a one-time code to play online, and to purchase a new one, a $10 fee was charged.

According to EA's senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg in an interview, "None of our new EA titles will include that feature."

The reason is that "many players didn't respond to the format," and now the company has "listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward."

It's interesting to note that this and the "try to have online components in everything" were the business strategies of former CEO John Riccitiello. With The Sims 4 being a single player offline experience and this bit of news, it seems that Frank Probst, who preceded Riccitiello's tenure and has taken his place, is rolling back his ideas.